Tag: Vesper Bar

Back in the summer, we asked whether you preferred "drinking" or "cocktailing" in Vegas. Obviously, that was an easy answer (both!), and now we want details.

We're wondering: What's your poison of preference in Vegas? A yard of beer around the neck on the Strip? A mix-o-logical Cosmo at Vesper? Ping-pong flavored Bud at Bill's? By the way, anyone else miss O'Sheas?

It's no lie. We enjoy our cocktails. Last year, we learned about Labor Wines which has ties to Vegas. Labor Wines was started, in part, by Corey Nyman, who you may remember from his infamous tweet last year about Border Grill charging for water. Nyman lives and works in Vegas in the food and beverage business. He took his daily labor of love and turned it into Labor Wines. (See what we did there?) Labor Wines is a small company run in a very DIY (Do It Yourself) style that we love, so we were intrigued.

The first vintage (2009) is a Pino Noir with fruit from six vineyards in the Yamhill-Carltron and Chehalem Mountains in Oregon. It was limited to 280 cases. We like Pinot Noir so we decided to try some. With a retail price of $25 a bottle, we decided to try multiple bottles for consistency. Our major takeaway is that we like this wine and it's very easy to drink. In fact, our first tasting started at the beginning of a movie and by the time the movie was over so was the bottle of wine. Uh oh.

OK, enough procrastinating. Here’s an overview of what we thought of our Cosmo preview. We’ll keep it brief because we don’t like passing judgment on something we only saw on a walkthrough, but we’ll return to all of these and revisit our impressions once it’s up and running. First up: the bars and restaurants. Next we’ll move on to the casino and the rooms.

The restaurantsLooks like we were right to be excited about these. We went into China Poblano, and although it won’t be open tonight – they say Friday – the decor was fantastic – a mishmash of Mexican and Chinese masks on the wall, along with bicycle tires on the roof and Frida Kahlo for good measure. Also, a weird but potentially cool bunch of tiered seats there for people getting takeout – love.

We also went into Comme Ca, which has the best views of the restos we saw – directly over the Eiffel Tower – and an incredibly well priced lunch deal, 3 courses for $28. See you there tomorrow.

Scarpetta looks fabulous, although the views are more of the Bellagio than the Strip. Finally we went up to STK and although we’re sad there are no Strip views – they blocked them off intentionally, FFS – we seriously love the idea of lady-friendly steak portions in small, medium and large, and things like crab salad instead of crab cakes. Also, there’s a fabulous private dining room – padded black leather walls, and its own sound system – which we’re seriously considering booking for our bday.

The Henry is a 24 hour restaurant and the only one on the casino floor. The vibe is kind of masculine hunters with a hint of bondage. We’re not sure about the name (more on that another time) but it could be a fun place when the munchies strike.

Finally we got a view of the secret pizza joint - it's on the restaurant floor and you go down what looks like a service passage, but what turns into a walkway lined with Italian record covers. There's a pinball machine and a small counter. Not really much room to eat in. No idea of prices, none of the staff said they knew how much it would be. Could be fun, though, especially if it stays open late.